Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP and haven't read the replies. But I feel like I'm really expert at this question--expert at what I did wrong.

My brother was getting married when my first would be 5 weeks old, and I was to be a bridesmaid. Baby #1 was too young to be in a mass crowd situation (no shots yet), so I pumped. We were in a different town and it was maybe a week of me pumping.

Drinking from a bottle is a bit easier for the baby as it flows out and they don't have to work as hard. So after the whole experience, Baby #1 would not go back to the breast.

I didn't think much of it because it was easy to pump.

Well that's because she's a newborn, and is immobile and sleeps a lot!...I did not anticipate when she was awake, crawling around and getting into things.

It became progressively harder to pump. I was determined to give her breast milk for a year, and it became really hard to pull off by the time she was 6+ months.

So if you want to continue to bf, just be careful of falling into this trap.

Also, you say you make more milk than your baby needs. I suspect it's because you are giving formula. The way the hormones work, if you are not supplementing, there is a balance between baby and mom (the crying and also the sucking action signal when milk comes down and how much to make). Feeding formula or other foods messes with that balance. (there is also an issue with the baby's gut being a bit porous at that time so shouldn't have other than breast milk if possible)

With my #2, I pumped only if I had to go somewhere for the evening (so not that much) and it really was easy to bf until #2 was 1 year old.

OP here. The pediatrician said formula was fine. I’ve always had family members and friends who exclusively breastfed and had an oversupply in the beginning until their supply regulated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Continue to breastfeed and wait it out. He will get more efficient fairly soon. For mine it was usually around 2 months. The pump seems like a good idea now, but you will basically be chained to it if you decide to exclusively pump. Think about when baby is just a little older and you want to go out and do something. You will need to take the pump and all the parts with you, find a place to pump, and then sit there and pump and miss out on whatever is going on. Then also carry a cooler bag with you to keep the milk cold. When they get efficient, it can be as quick as 10 minutes to nurse them. Push through this. Exclusive pumping is not something to take on lightly.

OP here. My spectra can be moved around and I do have a hands free pump that I have used.

Anonymous wrote:NP and haven't read the replies. But I feel like I'm really expert at this question--expert at what I did wrong.

My brother was getting married when my first would be 5 weeks old, and I was to be a bridesmaid. Baby #1 was too young to be in a mass crowd situation (no shots yet), so I pumped. We were in a different town and it was maybe a week of me pumping.

Drinking from a bottle is a bit easier for the baby as it flows out and they don't have to work as hard. So after the whole experience, Baby #1 would not go back to the breast.

I didn't think much of it because it was easy to pump.

Well that's because she's a newborn, and is immobile and sleeps a lot!...I did not anticipate when she was awake, crawling around and getting into things.

It became progressively harder to pump. I was determined to give her breast milk for a year, and it became really hard to pull off by the time she was 6+ months.

So if you want to continue to bf, just be careful of falling into this trap.

Also, you say you make more milk than your baby needs. I suspect it's because you are giving formula. The way the hormones work, if you are not supplementing, there is a balance between baby and mom (the crying and also the sucking action signal when milk comes down and how much to make). Feeding formula or other foods messes with that balance. (there is also an issue with the baby's gut being a bit porous at that time so shouldn't have other than breast milk if possible)

With my #2, I pumped only if I had to go somewhere for the evening (so not that much) and it really was easy to bf until #2 was 1 year old.

Anonymous wrote:NP and haven't read the replies. But I feel like I'm really expert at this question--expert at what I did wrong.

My brother was getting married when my first would be 5 weeks old, and I was to be a bridesmaid. Baby #1 was too young to be in a mass crowd situation (no shots yet), so I pumped. We were in a different town and it was maybe a week of me pumping.

Drinking from a bottle is a bit easier for the baby as it flows out and they don't have to work as hard. So after the whole experience, Baby #1 would not go back to the breast.

I didn't think much of it because it was easy to pump.

Well that's because she's a newborn, and is immobile and sleeps a lot!...I did not anticipate when she was awake, crawling around and getting into things.

It became progressively harder to pump. I was determined to give her breast milk for a year, and it became really hard to pull off by the time she was 6+ months.

So if you want to continue to bf, just be careful of falling into this trap.

Also, you say you make more milk than your baby needs. I suspect it's because you are giving formula. The way the hormones work, if you are not supplementing, there is a balance between baby and mom (the crying and also the sucking action signal when milk comes down and how much to make). Feeding formula or other foods messes with that balance. (there is also an issue with the baby's gut being a bit porous at that time so shouldn't have other than breast milk if possible)

With my #2, I pumped only if I had to go somewhere for the evening (so not that much) and it really was easy to bf until #2 was 1 year old.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re producing more than he needs, why the formula bottle? Formula is great I’m just wondering if you’re making an extra job for yourself of boiling/mixing/sterilizing while you’re also pumping and nursing.

I would wait this stage out. Soon he’ll be faster and completely getting rid of the dishwashing side of feeding the baby made my life much calmer.

OP here. I added formula in because I’m not sure how long I will breastfeed and I wanted to make sure he took formula. I’ve had many friends who had a hard time transitioning their older babies to formula and didn’t want to have that issues.

We don’t boil or sterilize formula. We just use filtered water heated up and powered formula. It takes like 30 seconds to make a bottle. My husband feeds him at night.

My husband is a champ and washes all the pump parts, bottles, and freezes my milk most days. We have a ton of bottles and I have two sets of pump parts.

I mainly pump overnight and in the morning because I get a lot of milk and my baby will only feed on one side during those times. During the day he eats from both and I don’t pump.

Just PSA, and I’m sorry if you already know this, but just in case you or someone else reading this doesn’t, you should boil the water you use to make formula for the first 8 weeks because the formula (not the water) may be contaminated with cronobacter.

https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/infantandtoddlernutrition/formula-feeding/infant-formula-preparation-and-storage.html#:~:text=To%20kill%20germs%20like%20Cronobacter,mixing%20with%20powdered%20infant%20formula.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re producing more than he needs, why the formula bottle? Formula is great I’m just wondering if you’re making an extra job for yourself of boiling/mixing/sterilizing while you’re also pumping and nursing.

I would wait this stage out. Soon he’ll be faster and completely getting rid of the dishwashing side of feeding the baby made my life much calmer.

OP here. I added formula in because I’m not sure how long I will breastfeed and I wanted to make sure he took formula. I’ve had many friends who had a hard time transitioning their older babies to formula and didn’t want to have that issues.

We don’t boil or sterilize formula. We just use filtered water heated up and powered formula. It takes like 30 seconds to make a bottle. My husband feeds him at night.

My husband is a champ and washes all the pump parts, bottles, and freezes my milk most days. We have a ton of bottles and I have two sets of pump parts.

I mainly pump overnight and in the morning because I get a lot of milk and my baby will only feed on one side during those times. During the day he eats from both and I don’t pump.

Anonymous wrote:If you’re producing more than he needs, why the formula bottle? Formula is great I’m just wondering if you’re making an extra job for yourself of boiling/mixing/sterilizing while you’re also pumping and nursing.

I would wait this stage out. Soon he’ll be faster and completely getting rid of the dishwashing side of feeding the baby made my life much calmer.

Anonymous wrote:First of all you are doing great and there is no wrong answer.

Second there is NO WAY I personally would commit to EPing at this stage. Newborns take a long time to feed and everything you describe is totally normal. But he won’t be like this much longer most likely. They learn to feed very quickly. Mine could do 5 min a side and drain my breast once they were a few months old. It’s night and day compared to newborn days. It’s also sooooo much easier than EPing for a year.

Anonymous wrote:Continue to breastfeed and wait it out. He will get more efficient fairly soon. For mine it was usually around 2 months. The pump seems like a good idea now, but you will basically be chained to it if you decide to exclusively pump. Think about when baby is just a little older and you want to go out and do something. You will need to take the pump and all the parts with you, find a place to pump, and then sit there and pump and miss out on whatever is going on. Then also carry a cooler bag with you to keep the milk cold. When they get efficient, it can be as quick as 10 minutes to nurse them. Push through this. Exclusive pumping is not something to take on lightly.